


The Trio of Festivals

by JackTheBard



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/M, Karaoke, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-17
Updated: 2015-02-13
Packaged: 2018-02-17 18:00:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2318351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JackTheBard/pseuds/JackTheBard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three festivals coincide on the same weekend. Teams RWBY, JNPR, Sun, and Neptune go out to party.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Friday

The energy was palpable in Beacon on this particular Friday. Classes were concluded for the day, and all homework had been suspended if only because the teachers realized that absolutely nothing would be accomplished over the weekend.

In autumn, there are three major festivals that occurred around the same time, each of which often accompanied by delicious food, artistic performances from a number of the natives of Vale, and an excessive amount of alcohol, much of which was infused with Dust.

For the first time in about fifty years, all three festivals fell on the same weekend, and Vale was bustling with activity as people readied themselves to celebrate the upcoming three days.

Ruby Rose was not thrilled. “Yang, you’re saying that we’re going to be going out for the next three nights and celebrating for no reason?”

“Yeah! Professor Ozpin gave us Monday off since the teachers will need to recover too. Come on, Ruby! It’ll be a blast!” Yang was giddy with excitement. During festivals, the usual drinking age of eighteen was lowered to sixteen so the older students of Beacon could enjoy themselves as well. But Ruby was still out of luck.

“I don’t want to be the designated sober person, though!” Ruby complained, folding her arms and flopping down on her bed with a groan.

“You won’t be the only one, little sis. From what I heard, Jaune isn’t planning on drinking tonight either. Besides, I have a guy that can get you a fake ID for tomorrow. You’ll be fine.”

“Wait what. You are going to get me a fake? How?”

Yang chuckled and examined her fingernails with as much casualty as she could muster. “I would say that a lady has her ways, but I have more access since I’m not a lady.”

That made Ruby’s stomach turn as she thought about what Yang had done in order to make such friends in low places. “Okay, but that doesn’t solve the problem of money. How are we going to pay for everything.”

“I can solve that,” a third voice said from behind the siblings. Weiss approached her teammates, her heels clicking on the floor. “I am from a rather wealthy family after all. The allowance they give me is very generous.”

“How generous are we talking, here?” Yang asked, rubbing her hands together with greedy glee.

Weiss’s smile widened a few molars and she reached into her pocket to hold up a credit chip, pressing a button to reveal its balance. “I currently have fifteen thousand. Haven’t spent much since we got here, so it’s just… piled up.”

“Fif… teen… thousand?!” Yang yelled, practically vibrating, “Weiss, we’re going to be set up for the whole weekend! Would you mind if some other people joined us too?”

“How many others?”

“Six,” Yang said, holding up three fingers on each hand to accentuate her point. “All of JNPR, Sun, and Neptune.”

“Well… I suppose we could accommodate them,” Weiss said, tapping her chin. “How do you feel about this, Blake?”

Blake Belladonna glanced up from her book and shrugged, “I mean, I’ll tag along, but I don’t know how everything will play out.”

“Then let’s do it! I’ll tell the others!” Yang said, darting from the room, presumably to inform their friends of the consensus.

“This is going to turn into a mess, isn’t it?” Ruby said with a groan.

“Probably,” Weiss responded.

That evening, the ten students of Beacon assembled in the courtyard, Yang grinning with excitement. “Ladies and gentlemen, tonight we drink, we fight, we do our ancestors proud!”

Cheers went up from Sun, Neptune, and Nora, though there was hesitance from Jaune, Ruby, and Pyrrha. The rest remained indifferent.

“Seriously, guys?” Yang said with a groan. She sighed with exasperation and approached her friends, saying only, “Listen… we’re going to go out and have a blast. Jaune, you’ve got to help Ruby keep the rest of us in line, so you don’t have to drink, and Ruby doesn’t have her Fake yet. So tonight will just be us getting a feel for the environment, okay?”

There was a sense of relief that washed over the whole group, and Yang felt accomplished. “Guys, let’s just go out there and have some fun. Drink triple, see double, act single!”

With that, the whole group rolled out, Ruby and Jaune sticking close by as the awkward leaders of their respective squads, just doing what they could to ensure they stayed out of trouble.

By the time they got into Vale, the Festival of Dancing Lights was already in full swing, colorful Dust lanterns swinging overhead to illuminate the crowds of people circling below. There were booths for souvenirs, live musicians, and more food and drink than one could shake a stick at. Weiss, being the one paying the bill, made the winning suggestion for their first stop, “There’s a good public house not too far from here. It’s serving specials for the festival.”

“At least this way we can get some food in our system,” Pyrrha said, Ren nodding in agreement. Nora groaned audibly.

“Awwww… but why can’t we just go and drink until we’re silly? Why do we have to get _food_ involved?” she said, but went along anyway, hanging onto Ren’s coat in dismay.

They sat down in the Armstrong Public House, menus distributed liberally to the whole group, and so the evening began. After they placed their orders, Yang called for a round of Cinnamon spice beer for the whole table, save for Jaune and Ruby. Jaune raised his glass of water, but Ruby hoisted her Shirley temple, little cocktail umbrella sticking pointedly out of the glass. “A toast!” Yang called out to her friends, “May our memories of this weekend be foggy at best!”

“Cheers!” Everyone said. They were getting into the spirit of the event, and drank from their glasses. Sun spoke next, “So I have some ideas for bars we could hit after dinner. There’s a good one that Neptune and I used to hang out at called The Sea’s Bounty.”

“I wonder why that was Neptune’s hangout,” Weiss said sarcastically, offering the blue-haired boy a smile. Neptune shrugged and returned it, though his cheeks were dusted red.

“It’s got some of the best grog you’ve ever had,” Sun continued.

“Grog?” asked Ruby.

“Mixture of beer and rum,” Yang answered, “Pirates drink it.”

“Sounds messy,” Jaune murmured.

“Sounds fun!” Nora continued, downing her whole beer and passing it to their waiter, ordering another one in the process.

The teams drank copiously through dinner, with the heavyweight among them being Nora. She breezed through three glasses of the Cinnamon beer, claiming that it was making her stronger, though if anything, it just made her gigglier and goofier.

By the time they left, Nora was clinging onto Ren, koala-style, making jetpack sounds as he walked along with her effortlessly. “I’m not drunk!” She said with a giggle, “I’m just having fun. Whoosh! Fly away, Ren!”

Ren was actively smiling at this point, the alcohol making him glow a little bit more. He seemed so much more approachable now, and actually spoke more than two words in an hour.

The Sea’s Bounty, was, as to be expected, on the waterfront. A couple of sailors stumbled around the entrance, even though it wasn’t even nine o clock yet. Yang held the door open for the lot and they took their seats at the bar. Ruby and Jaune just ordered water, while everyone else ordered large tankards of grog… except Weiss.

“It sounds filthy tasting! A lady of my standing should not be seen with rum in hand!”

“Weiss…” Neptune groaned, “Please? Humor me? You may like it.”

At Neptune’s persuasion, Weiss caved. “Fine… fine… but only because you talked me into it.”

The grog was served to them in great wooden mugs, since glass was broken so easily in the store, and metal spoiled the taste. The mugs clonked against one another as they toasted again, and began to drink heartily. Jaune and Ruby let out a little sigh each, glancing down the bar at their friends. “Shame we can’t join them,” Ruby said, lamenting her youngness.

“Speak for yourself. I can… I just don’t want Pyrrha to see me drunk just yet,” Jaune responded, glancing down the bar at the woman with hair of fire, and he felt his stomach jump a bit.

Ruby leaned over and whispered in his ear, “You liiiiiike her.”

Jaune stiffened and turned bright red, “Do not.”

“You totally do.”

“I do not!”

“Totes mcGotes, Jauney-boy,” Ruby teased, poking her friend and cackling madly.

“Fine!” Jaune said, lowering his voice out of fear that the woman in question would pick up on their conversation. “So what if I do? She likes me back… but I don’t know how to go about it.”

“Hmm… you will make it work. I think that this weekend will be the time you finally do,” Ruby said, elbowing her friend as the drinking members of their party, one by one, finished their grog and called for another.

“Oh dear… this is going to be messy,” Ruby said, hanging her head.

Weiss downed the last of her grog and exhaled, the booze leaving her breath with ease. She settled, her fingers tightening on the mug for a moment before turning to Neptune and saying loudly, “That. Was. Delicious! I need like… two. Two more. Two more for me! And whatever these guys want from the bar!” She cheered and almost fell off her stool, causing Ren to snicker and Pyrrha to laugh openly.

Across the room, a group of sailors cheered with Weiss and began singing a sea shanty, Neptune joining in with the familiar tune.

We drink to the masts at the siren’s call,  
For all is one and one is all  
Beneath the sails of cloth so white  
A good man be getting laid tonight!  
Yo-ho, yo-ho! Drink the grog casks dry!  
Yo-ho, yo-ho! We are harrowing the arrow that soars on by!

The tune itself was mostly nonsense, but Neptune knew the words by heart. Eventually, the rest of the group caught on and sang with the sailors until the song was done, and the men cheered loudly for the Beacon students sitting at the bar. “Drink and be merry, ye wee ones!” one of them called, “These be the best years of yarr life!”

The students returned the toast and faced the bar once again, finishing the last of their grog as Weiss closed out the tab. “Where to next?” She asked, standing and stumbling for a moment, grumbling something about her shoes betraying her.

“We could always go to the town square?” Ruby suggested, “That way we can wander and you guys can drink. Besides, I heard that No-Tell Motel was playing tonight.”

“Holy shit, No-Tell is in Beacon?” Yang said excitedly, bouncing up and down, the action drawing the attention of quite a few sailors.

“From what I’ve heard, yeah,” Ruby said with a shrug.

“Excuse me?” Pyrrha said, raising her hand, “But who is No-Tell Motel?”

“They’re a band that-“ Sun started to explain before Yang cut him off.

“They write really awesome songs about sex!”

Pyrrha nodded in thought before she said, “I’m in. Let’s go.” She walked out the door, passing by Jaune, who simply stared with his jaw almost on the floor.  
Once they got a little bit closer to the town square, the music could be heard from afar. Heavy bass, sick guitar riffs, and a crooning voice on lead vocals resounded through the city, and it was often accompanied by the screeching of women and men alike.

Once the students got to the town square, they quickly saw why. A raised stage housed a band of five people, rocking out while their front man, Leroy Dennings crooned out to the ladies in the audience, the light show surrounding them completely fitting with the theme of the festival. The students found a nice place somewhere in the middle, and another source of alcohol from one of the beverage booths not too far from the stage.

Leroy pointed out into the crowd, his finger seemingly settling on Nora, and the crowd carried her up to the stage, letting her surf along the top of the crowd to settle on the stage. Ren fumed slightly as he stared at the clearly very attractive man singing to his childhood friend.

Nora practically swooned as Leroy leaned in to kiss her, but she kept him at a distance, much to Ren’s satisfaction. Once the song was done, she sailed the crowd back out to her friends, settling down and screeching with joy. The whole time, Pyrrha was transfixed, her gaze locked on the man with the gyrating hips up on the stage, and her hungry gaze did not go unnoticed by Weiss. “Pyrrha? Are you okay?”

That statement snapped Pyrrha out of her reverie and she turned to the lady in white, saying, “Yes! Yes. I am fine. Nothing wrong here, no sir.”

Weiss knew that she was lying but let it be, instead turning to dance to the next song.

The remainder of the concert was fantastic, and not a single one of the students went without booze for long. It wasn’t enough to get them completely plastered, yet they had a healthy buzz going by the time they got back to Beacon, Nora still koala-clinging on Ren with giddy joy.

It was definitely a good start, and not a single one of them was unpleasantly exhausted.


	2. Saturday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Apparently, the previous evening did not have the results that Yang wanted. Round 2, here they come!

Everyone met in the dining room of Beacon at a reasonable hour, about eight o’ clock. This naturally left Yang and Sun very frustrated.

“You’re saying that not a single one of you is hungover?!” Sun asked incredulously.

An assortment of negatives went around the table, especially from Jaune and Ruby. “We didn’t drink, remember?” They practically said in unison.

Sun sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger, allowing Yang to speak up. “Guys, you didn’t have a good night if you were so unable to walk that you needed the assistance of incredibly hunky men in order to get you out of the bar.”

“Yang, I’m pretty sure those were security guards,” Ruby said, cringing.

“Yeah. That’s how all the best parties end!” Yang said with excitement, offering a shrug that basically said, “Eh, what are you going to do?”

Sun offered his two cents after a brief interlude of argument and crankiness between the sisters. “Guys, the point is that, aside from Nora, all of us were walking by the end of the evening.”

“And why walk when you could stagger?” Neptune asked.

“Why stagger when you could crawl?” Nora added.

“Why crawl when you could become a security problem like me?” Yang asked, causing another worried glance from Ruby.

“Yang, please? Just try to maintain a sense of composure tonight?”

“Pfft hell no. And neither will you. I managed to run into my guy last night, and I was able to get your fake. Here.” She slid a small square of plastic across the table, all the information exactly the same, save for the fact that her birthday was one year earlier than the truth.

“Yang! This is wrong!”

“You don’t have to keep it, sis. Just ditch it after the festival, then wait three years like you’re supposed to.”

Ruby groaned in frustration, looking over to her teammates. “Weiss? Blake? Do you guys have any input on this?”

Weiss shrugged and said, “Most IDs are made with formatting from the Schnee Corporation, so I can vouch for you if absolutely necessary.”

Ruby glanced over at Blake for the slightest bit of support, but only met indifference. “You could use the opportunity to have a little fun and cut loose. Besides, I don’t think that anyone here has seen you under the influence of anything except extreme exhaustion.”

Yang cackled and smacked her hand across Ruby’s back, “There you have it, little sis! You are drinking with us tonight!”

Ruby was still apprehensive, but she couldn’t shake the knowledge that the rest of them had fun… so why not? Might as well enjoy the setup of these three festivals that only coincided on the same weekend once every fifty years or so.

“Fine. Fine. I’ll join you guys tonight. But only as long as Jaune does too!” Ruby said, pointing at the leader of team JNPR.

Jaune stopped dead and shook his head, holding up his hands in surrender. “No no no no, That would just be a bad idea. How are we going to keep ourselves under control then?”

“We won’t,” Sun, Nora, and Yang said at the same time. Neptune cursed himself for not being cool enough to join in.

“I beg your pardon?” Jaune asked, wanting clarification.

“We won’t control ourselves,” Nora said, “We’re just going to cut loose, go a little crazy, maybe get into some trouble. It’ll be awesome.”

Jaune sighed and finally said, “Alright… alright, fine. Looks like we’re all drinking tonight. Woo, we’re going to be hot messes.”

Pyrrha elbowed Jaune playfully, saying, “Come on, it’ll be fun. Who knows? Maybe you’ll find a pretty young lady to dance with.”

“Doubtful,” Jaune said, looking over at his partner with a little smile. “I’d rather just dance with you all night.”

Nora’s gaze perked up and she glanced over at Ren with a broad smile, unable to contain her excitement at the idea that her ship was sailing. “Ren. Ren. This is totally happening.”

“What’s happening?” He asked before he glanced over at Jaune and Pyrrha smiling at each other, Pyrrha’s cheeks dusted with a red that Jaune seemed not to notice. “Oh. That.”

Neptune leaned over to whisper in Sun’s ear, “If they don’t hook up by the end of the weekend, I’m going to be really disappointed.”

It was safe to assume that was the sentiment of the whole table of friends.

That evening, after everyone had gotten gussied up within an inch of their lives, they met in the courtyard once again, Weiss double-checking the balance on her credit chip to ensure that they still had plenty of money for the next two nights. “We only went through five hundred last night, surprisingly. If the trend continues, we should be safe for the remainder of the weekend.”

“Should,” Yang responded under her breath. That earned her a cold stare from Weiss, as well as Ruby.

Neptune pointed out to the city, “Anyway. What do you all say about starting at the Sea’s Bounty again? We had a lot of fun there last night.”

“As long as we get to have grog,” Weiss said unabashedly.

“Why wouldn’t we?” Sun said flatly, “You’re footing the bill.”

“Point. ONWARD!” Weiss called, marching forward like the valiant leader of a military excursion. Her friends followed suit, laughing loudly and trading jokes the entire way there.

Tonight, Vale was host for The Celebration of Life, which wasn’t that different from how it sounded. It was filled with people in the streets, singing and dancing, eating and drinking, enjoying their lives to the fullest. The bars were crowded with couples attempting to find a lover for the evening, and both men and women alike in the students’ group received unwanted advances.

Pyrrha responded to them best when a man grabbed her ass by punching him so hard that he flew about three feet. Everyone kept a wide berth, then.

As to be expected, the Sea’s Bounty was packed full of sailors, some of which had ladies on their arms, but many of which did not. The advances made by the majority of the people in the sailor’s pub were apparent, yet all were politely refused. Save for Yang, who indulged them if only to get a free round or two.

Ruby stared on in shock as her sister pressed her chest out in order to seduce the lieutenant of a trading vessel, saying, “My sister and I are really thirsty. Think you could oblige us?”

It was like a form of magic. Two mugs of Grog appeared in their hands faster than Ruby could count, and she just turned her head to stare at Yang. “Yang… whaaaaa?”

“Flaunt ‘em if you got ‘em, little sis,” Yang responded, toasting her sister and drinking up. Ruby took a sip as well and the taste disgusted on her at first… but the second and third sips grew on her until she had gone through the entire mug. Everyone else was on their second, and Yang passed her another.

“Courtesy of that bearded gentleman over there,” Yang says, pointing at an aged sea captain.

“Eew, Yang! He’s old enough to be hanging out with Uncle Qrow!”

“And? He bought us drinks. Toast him.” She raised her glass in thanks to the gentleman. Ruby followed suit. He raised his tankard right back, and returned to the conversation with his sailors.

As the sisters turned back to the bar, they glanced down to see a grumbling Blake. “No, Sun. Go away. Fuck, just… just give me one of those cocktail napkins like now.”

“Uh… Blake?” Ruby asked, a little worried. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine. Just get me something to write with that isn’t blood and something to write on that isn’t skin. Now.” She said curtly, snagging a couple of the small, square napkins from the bartender’s station and a pen from a very confused Weiss. She began scribbling ideas and flowcharts on the napkins, having to snag a few more piles. Sun watched her carefully, reaching out to rest a hand on her shoulder, resulting in a prod with the pen right to the abdominals.

“Ow! What was that for?!”

“Interrupting me. Let me think, dammit.”

Sun shrugged and backed off. Neptune and Nora giggled down the bar while Ren just looked on in mild shock. To him, Blake just got a lot more terrifying.

After three tankards of the heavy grog, they moved on, forcibly having to take Blake with them. Sun thought it would be funny to take a few of her napkin-notes and stuff them in his pants, running right out the door. At least they got her out of the building.

After about fifteen minutes of Blake chasing Sun through the streets, she finally managed to catch him and remove her notes from his waistband, instead stuffing them into her pockets with her incredibly grumpy cat face. Sun snickered, taking her hand and walking with her. That earned another somewhat-playful jab from Blake’s pen, but their hands stayed together.

After the remainder of the group caught up with them, they meandered in a vaguely town-square-ward direction, with Nora skipping in the lead, practically dancing in the streets. Ren was right behind her, practically following suit until they linked arms and made a rather exaggerated march down the street.

Pyrrha was leaning on Jaune every now and then, her cheeks dusted with red. She wouldn’t admit it, but she craved… contact of a certain kind when she was drinking. She just had to maintain at least some sense of self control because of the fact that she was such a public figure.

As they passed by a bar, Jaune stopped dead, staring at its title, listening to the sounds wafting out. Everyone else stopped right afterwards, Nora coming up with Ren riding Piggyback. “Jaune?” Nora asked, “Are you okay?”

“It’s a Karaoke bar. I’ve never been inside one,” he replied. Sure enough, the name of the establishment was **Sentinel Sam’s! Barbeque and Karaoke**.

“Why would you want to go in there?” Neptune asked, snickering. “It’s a place where drunk people go and sing horribly.”

“My family had a Karaoke machine at home. Seven sisters, remember?” He asks, looking at his teammates. Not three weeks earlier, they had busted a collective move together, resulting in surprise from all of them about his ability to dance. “I can sing pretty well.”

With that, Jaune began wandering into the bar, pushing the saloon-style doors open to stride in confidently. The remainder of the group just stared before Ruby spoke up. “Oh my goodness, I have to see this.”

With that, she charged in right after him, the rest following suit. By the time they got in, Jaune had already placed an order for a drink and for a round of Karaoke. Everyone else placed their orders and Weiss set her credit chip on the bar, saying, “Keep it open, plesase.”

“Of course, Ms… Schnee? Oh my. Absolutely, ma’am,” The bartender responded, putting it in an envelope, as well as a list of the beverages ordered. Weiss, true to form, requested grog, and snickered at the drink Neptune ordered.

“Sex on the Beach? Sounds like a gritty, sandy mess,” She said, glancing sideways at the cocktail that looked like you could fall in love with a squid inside it.

“Not if you know how to do it right,” Neptune responded with a wink, immediately causing Weiss to turn a shade of crimson darker than she already was.

Within the next five minutes, it was Jaune’s turn to go up onto the stage and select a song. “Ooooh…” he murmured as he found one, “My favorite.”

As he selected the song, the speakers began to play a slow, jazzy tune. The crowd cheered as Jaune began to sing in the most clear, perfect tenor, resulting in stares of shock from his friends and teammates.

_Those fingers in my hair_  
 _That sly, come-hither stare._  
 _That strips my conscience bare,_  
 _It’s witchcraft._

Nora stared at Ren, Ren stared right back, and Pyrrha couldn’t take her eyes off her captain on the stage. Yang just sat there in shock and mouthed, “What. The. Fuck.”

_And I got no defense for it._  
 _The heat is intense for it._  
 _What good would common sense for it do?_

His voice resounded throughout Sentinel Sam’s, and everyone cheered each time he finished a verse. Pyrrha bit her lip, pressing her legs together as she watched Jaune sing, and Yang took note. Yang leaned over and whispered in her sister’s ear, “Five bucks says that she goes up there and tears Jaune’s clothes off.”

“Five bucks says you’re wrong. She has some self-control. Unlike you.”

“Cold, little sis. But you’re on.” They shook on it and redirected their gaze back to the stage.

_Because it’s witchcraft._  
 _Wicked witchcraft._  
 _And although, I know, it’s strictly taboo,_  
 _When you arouse the need in me,_  
 _My heart says “yes indeed” in me_  
 _“Proceed with what you’re leadin’ me to.”_

Neptune and Sun cheered, Nora and Ren whistled at the stage. Blake was too absorbed in her napkin notes to say anything but generalized grumbling about how loud it was and she couldn’t hear herself think, but Yang and Ruby had their gazes directed at Pyrrha. She was rubbing her legs together, folding her arms across her belly as she leaned forward, clearly experiencing some kind of discomfort that caused her face to turn bright red. She couldn’t tear her eyes off the stage and Yang leaned over, saying, “You are going to owe me five dollars~” to her sister.

“Wait.”

_It’s such an ancient pitch._  
 _But one I wouldn’t switch._  
 _Because there’s no nicer witch than you._

The last words crooned into the microphone, Jaune locked eyes with Pyrrha, and her gaze tore away from him as she looked back to the bar and stammered out to the guy behind, “I don’t care what you make me, as long as it’s strong.”

Ruby held her hand out in expectation. Yang groaned and reached into her bra, withdrawing a sweaty, wadded up five dollar bill, and handed it to her sister. Ruby cringed, but tucked it in her pocket anyway. Eew.

Jaune came back to the bar and sat next to Pyrrha, glancing over at her with mild concern, “Pyrrha? You… uh… you okay?”

“I’m fine, Jaune,” she murmured, though her red cheeks betrayed her.

“Are you sure you’re not running a fever or anything? You look warm.”

“Just had a bit much to drink is all, Jaune. I’m fine.”

Behind them, Ren and Nora giggled. He looked over at Nora and said, “He doesn’t know.”

“I don’t know what?” Jaune asked.

“Nothing!” Pyrrha responded before either of her other two teammates could say anything. “Nothing is the matter. Nothing is wrong. All is well, Jaune.”

“O… Kay,” Jaune said, ordering a vodka cranberry from the bartender as Ren and Nora snickered. He was sitting in her lap and she was booping his nose at least once every five minutes. Silly, silly lovers.

As they waited, Weiss slowly went up onstage, her turn for the Karaoke machine having arrived. She selected the tune and wiped at her eyes before she started to sing, slightly off-pitch.

_Coming out of my cage,_  
 _And I’ve been doing just fine,_  
 _And by god, I’ll be damned_  
 _Because I want it all._

_It started out with a kiss,_  
 _How did it end up like this?_  
 _It was only a kiss._  
 _It was only a kiss._

As Weiss stumbled her way through “Mr. Brightside”, Neptune watched in awe, even when she started openly crying and some of the crowd yelled for her to get off the stage. Despite the hecklers, she finished the song. As she returned to her seat, Neptune stood up and stumbled over, hugging her tightly. Weiss returned the embrace, bubbling out a strained, “Don’t touch me…” through it.

As the hug broke, Ruby and Yang glanced at each other, prompting a broad smile from Yang. Ruby simply said, “Don’t you dare.”

“Awww, come on!”

“No.”

“Fun killer.”

Neptune walked off to the side with Weiss, and within five minutes, they were both openly weeping, hugging each other close. Five more, and his lips were pressed against hers. Sun observed and let out a low whistle. “Hot damn.”

Blake took a break from her writing and doodling to elbow him in the side. “Ow! What was that for?”

“For being an idiot.”

“Okay,” he said, leaning over and kissing her on the cheek. Blake just looked over and smirked, jabbing him in the abdominals with the pen.

“You know, if you go up there and do a song, I may actually pay attention,” Blake says teasingly.

“You got it,” he responded, winking and putting his name on the list. Within a few moments, he was called up onto the stage to select his tune.

There was no music, and Sun started off the song as the words rolled across the screen.

_I’m. Too sexy for my love._  
 _Too sexy for my love love_  
 _Is going to leave me._

The electronic drum riff kick-started the entire crowd’s cheering as his hips moved in time to the music. He was like a retired male stripper that didn’t know he quit, his practically perfectly defined body moving in perfect time to the music as he kept on singing.

Off in the crowd, Blake stared on in shock for a moment before bursting out laughing, almost falling off her bar stool.

Neptune and Weiss paused for a moment to stare on at Sun, their jaws hanging open as he took off his already-open shirt and tossed into the crowd. Blake caught it, still unable to breathe at the sight of Sun shaking his tush on the stage.

_I’m. Too sexy for this song._

With that, he just walked off, striding through the crowd to where Blake sat, still in stitches, and leaned in, whispering. “You can keep the shirt.”

They continued until two in the morning, with performances from Ren and Nora of “Kung Fu Fighting”, from Yang of “Barbie Girl”, and from Ruby of “One Week” by the Barenaked Ladies. 

By the time the bar closed, Neptune and Weiss were barely supporting each other, Yang practically dancing circles around the both of them. Pyrrha and Jaune were walking awkwardly side by side, Pyrrha’s hand wanting to take Jaune’s so badly. Ruby walked with Blake, the two of them excitedly talking about writing ideas, with Blake still hastily scribbling notes on her forearms and Sun’s, seeing as she ran out of napkins. Ren and Nora took turns carrying one another, stumbling left and right and center down the deserted streets, giggling wildly as they almost crashed into a wall on several occasions.

It was a wonderful night, and not a single one of them could walk in a straight line. The mission was accomplished for the evening.


	3. Sunday

Neptune woke with a head full of fuzz, pain, and a surprising lack of memories. The last thing he remembered, he was kissing Weiss after her performance at the Karaoke bar, and now… he was lying in bed.

Naked.

Why was he naked?

He glanced over to his right, now keenly aware of the way the mattress was shifting towards another side. He reached up and rubbed his forehead, glad that his goggles hadn’t fallen off in his sleep, scrubbing at his eyes to remove the sleep and pain if only a little.

His head turned away from the light of the window, and he saw a beautiful and horrifying sight. Weiss Schnee. Naked. In bed. With him.

He couldn’t remember what happened for the life of him, and he was worried what would happen if Weiss were to wake up right now. Neptune held his breath and rolled away from her, hoping to escape the bed, only to bump into another body. The curvaceous form of Yang Xiao Long lay on his opposite side, locking him in what could be otherwise considered a delicious sandwich.

This was bad.

Neptune stood and crawled out of the bed, tiptoeing between the two sleeping women and landing lightly on the floor. Yang snorted and Neptune thought he was doomed… but she dozed right back off, mumbling something about dead parents.

Blessing his good luck, Neptune glanced about, picking up his clothes and redressing himself as quickly as he could. Once everything below the waist was covered, he stepped outside, closing the door behind him. Taking a deep breath, he began to run down the hall, screaming, “SUUUUUUUUUN!!!!”

His screams of distress woke up Weiss rather unpleasantly, causing her to groan and rub her eyes in much the same way that Neptune had, only the first sight she saw was the nude back of Yang.

Weiss screamed in shock, jolting the blonde from her rest. Yang sat upright, letting the covers fall slide down as her hands went up to cover her ears, leaving her top exposed. Weiss averted her eyes and they both moaned in distress at the screaming headaches they nursed.

Yang was the first to speak, grumbling, “God damn, Weiss… wait… where’s Neptune?”

“Neptune?!” Weiss asked in shock. She remembered kissing him at the Karaoke bar, but not much past that. Yang reached behind her and tossed a pillow at Weiss, causing the fluffy headrest to smack Weiss in the face, knocking her off the bed with the strike, causing just generalized pain for them both.

“Yes, Neptune,” Yang said, “We all slept together last night.”

“We did what?!”

“Shhhhh…” Yang grumbled, waving for Weiss to at least reduce her volume. “Could you just… calm your tits for a moment and pass me my bra?”

Sure enough, Weiss was sitting on top of Yang’s bra, and she tossed it over to her teammate. Yang put it on easily, then stood up and pulled on her underwear, a pair of boxers with flame print on them. Weiss thought they were tacky, but they suited Yang just fine. Her thoughts were interrupted by her bra and panties being tossed in her general direction.

“Hang tight…” Yang said, reaching into the trash can beside the nightstand, pulling out something rubber and floppy. “Well… there are a few, at least.”

Weiss stared on in shock as Yang pulled out one, two, then more and more condoms until there were six in all, sitting on the bed.

“Damn. He had stamina,” Yang mused while Weiss stared on in stunned silence.

“He… and I… and you…?”

“Yep. I remember that you guys were cuddling afterwards. It was kind of cute.”

Weiss blushed darkly, grumbling as she put on her skirt, shirt, and petticoat. “I’m never speaking to him again. Never.”

“Don’t do that.”

“Why not?!” Weiss asked, her voice a hiss instead of a shout.

“Because you guys were fucking adorable and because you have chemistry. Which definitely counts for something as far as I’m concerned,” Yang pulled on her pants and boots, stretching and popping her back. “Just… talk to him about it. Maybe you guys can try and do it right tonight when we head back out.”

“No no no no no, we are not going back out tonight, Yang,” Weiss said sharply, pointing at her teammate with an accusatory finger. “We are staying in and staying out of trouble.”

“Hair of the dog will do you good. Besides, I know something that will make you feel better once we get to the mess hall.”

Weiss paused, staring at her teammate for a moment before putting on her wedges once again. “Fine… fine… we’ll go out. If only so I can spend time with him normally…”

“That’s the spirit. Now put your hair up and let’s get some breakfast.”

In the mess hall, Neptune and Sun Wukong sat with a stack of pancakes and tall glasses of water, the former still agitated by his state of awakening. The latter was too hungover to really give a damn.

“No, I mean I woke up, and there they were! We were naked, Sun!”

“You said that. And you need to quiet down. I can’t hear myself think and that hurts on its own.” 

“Sun!”

“Just… let me ask you one thing. How much do you remember, Neptune?”

“Not a thing,” Neptune responded, still clearly flustered.

“But you still had a threesome with Yang Xiao Long and Weiss Schnee.”

“So it would seem…” Neptune groaned, resting his head in his hands.

“Then quit your complaining. You just probably had an amazing night.”

Neptune slammed his fist on the table, attracting the attention of a few other hungover students, including Sun. “That’s not the point, Sun,” Neptune said curtly. “I just… kind of really like Weiss. And our relationship is probably fucked now.”

“Just as fucked as all three of you were last night,” Sun snickered under his breath. Neptune paid no attention.

“She’s pretty cool, okay? And I know cool.”

“You don’t say.”

“What do I do, Sun?”

“Talk to her.”

That made Neptune stop dead in his tracks. Maybe that was his problem all along. He didn’t talk to people about the problems he had. Jaune had brought up the same point at the dance not too long ago, and that made him think for a moment.

“You’re right. You’re definitely right. I need to talk to her. I just need to fess up and admit that I screwed the pooch,” he says with a sigh. “Thanks, Sun.”

Sun grumbled and took a forkful of pancakes, waving Neptune off.

Nora and Ren showed up next, practically supporting one another in their hungover state, then Ruby, Blake, and Jaune. They all sat down and got their plates, tall drinks of water in front of them, a sense of bleary frustration overriding their entire being.

Yang and Weiss showed up next.

Their hair was a mess, they looked like the wrath of god in the best of ways. There was clearly a bit of an awkward air between them, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been. Weiss’ face turned a dark red when she finally saw Neptune, and made a point to sit far away from him. Yang sat across from Sun and asked, “What kind of monkey business are you up to?”

Sun glared coldly at her and gave her the finger. Yang snickered and said, “Guys, you do realize that there is an amazing cure for a hangover that I know, right?”

“What?” Almost everyone asked in various states of grumbling. Down the table, Neptune stood up to sit with Weiss, starting to talk. His body was hunched awkwardly as he spoke, and Weiss stared coldly at him for a bit before warming up and resting her hand on his.

Yang held up one finger to watch the proceeds, and Sun turned around to observe them with her, the both of them smiling in satisfaction when Weiss smiled and Neptune curled his fingers around hers.

“Guys, we need… three boxes of Pumpkin Pete’s Marshmallow Flakes and a whole lot of ThunderAid,” Yang said, moving to retrieve several bowls from the cereal station, putting them out in front of her friends and teammates.

Ren eyed the setup carefully, his face contorting into shock as he watched Yang pour a healthy portion of Marshmallow Flakes, then ThunderAid over them like milk. “Yang what are you doing?!”

“It’s the best hangover cure in the city. Just trust me, okay?” she said, pushing the bowl in front of Ren. Everyone shrugged and poured out a similar bowl, then dug in, grimacing at the taste. Yang was the only one that didn’t seem to be fazed by how nasty it was, just wolfing it down and leaning back. Once everyone was done, they felt like vomiting. Nora grumbled and rested her forehead on the table.

“Yang, I thought you said this would help,” Ruby moaned.

“Wait.”

As if a switch went off, Nora sat back up, seemingly completely cured, and yawned loudly. “Whoo! That sure did the trick. Thanks, Yang!”

Everyone eyed Nora in shock before, one by one, the switches went off and their hangover was cured like a miracle. Then Pyrrha showed up.

Her hair was a mess, her outfit was on crooked, and she grumbled angrily, sitting down next to Jaune and resting her head on the table, grumbling something about not even eating carrots.

Jaune prodded Pyrrha in the shoulder and she grumbled, giving him the finger. “Pyrrha, how bad is it?” he asked, genuinely concerned for his friend.

“You’re talking too loud,” she responds, burying her face further into her arms.

Yang poured out another bowl of her Hangover Helper, passing it to Pyrrha. “Eat.”

“No."

“Eat. You’ll feel better.”

“No. I’m not touching those marshmallow flakes ever again.”

Yang sighed and moved over to whisper in Pyrrha’s ear, “If you eat the cereal, I’ll make sure Jaune sings more Karaoke tonight.”

Pyrrha was deathly still for a moment before glancing up at Yang with a cold stare. “I really hate you right now,” she said before she took a spoon and started shoveling her mouth full of the nasty mixture of energy drink and sugary cereal.

Her face turned a little bit green and she got up to leave, presumably to the bathroom so she could throw up, then stopped dead and sat back down. “How the hell did you do that?” Pyrrha asked Yang.

“Experience,” was Yang’s only reply. She leaned forward and began to plan. “Okay, ladies, gentlemen, and Ruby.”

“Hey!”

“We have one more night of this epic insanity. One more. Tonight is the Feast of Fools, which means that if we do not get completely, totally, puke-your-face-off plastered tonight, then we will have disgraced our families.”

Ren and Jaune sat bolt upright. They didn’t want to disgrace their families. Especially considering that they were both from a long line of huntsmen.

“We start at Sentinel Sam’s for dinner, drinks, and more singing,” Yang said, prompting cheers from Jaune and Sun, “And I found out about this good club called ‘Also a Gun’. It’s a dance club, so wear comfortable shoes and sexy clothes.”

That made everyone pause. “Wait… do we have to dress sexy?” Nora asked, concerned.

“Well, dress to impress. We’re having fun, remember? Just make sure you can still bust a move. And Jaune, no dress.”

“Fine. Fine,” he grumbled, folding his arms. This made him apprehensive. Something was off with Pyrrha last night, and even though she was feeling a lot better now, she still looked a little red in the face. “Weiss, you still got us covered, right?”

“We’ll be fine, so long as you don’t cause any property damage,” Weiss cautioned, glancing at everyone at the table.

Yang had to bite her tongue so she didn’t burst out laughing. No property damage. What a joke.

That evening, the girls helped each other dress while the guys got themselves all set up in a different way.

“Nora, could you tighten my laces, please?” Pyrrha asked, turning around so the laces of her corset were exposed to her teammate. Nora pulled them tight expertly, tying them off so there would be no slippage.

“Trying to impress someone tonight, Pyrrha?” Nora asked, a devious grin on her face.

“No. Why would you say that?” Pyrrha responded, glad that her face wasn’t towards Nora.

“Because you’re looking prettier than usual, and we saw the expression on your face last night.”

Pyrrha stopped dead in her tracks, walking over to select a skirt and jacket to go with the corset, settling on red with gold trim for both. “You… think he knows?”

“Nope,” Ruby said, sticking with her usual outfit, “Jaune is a wonderful guy, but not the brightest bulb in the box. He needs to be told everything to his face otherwise he doesn’t pick up on it.”

“Do you think I should…?” Pyrrha said, turning and facing her friends.

“Yes,” everyone said flatly, and Pyrrha bowed her head in silence.

“Fine… I guess you all can’t be wrong.”

Meanwhile, in the guys’ room, laughter ensued. “Jaune, you are NOT going out in that,” Neptune said, glaring at the other guy’s outfit.

“Who died and made you the fashion police?” Jaune asked curtly, gesturing at the outfit he always wore. “This is normal clothing for me. It’s comfortable.”

“Nobody had to die to make me this cool, okay?” Neptune said, a little bit of insecurity showing.

Sun just stared at Jaune’s outfit, thinking. Jaune glared at Sun, asking, “What?!”

“Take off everything from the waist up, and your shoes. Keep the pants, they’re fine.”

“Um… no?” Jaune said, refusing to be a part of Sun’s shenanigans.

“Okay. That’s it. You’ve forced my hand,” Sun said, “Ren, Neptune, grab him please.”

The other two guys in the room each took one of Jaune’s arms and began assisting Sun in the modifications to Jaune’s outfit that they deemed necessary.

By the time they were done, Jaune looked fabulous. His hair was styled into almost haphazard golden spikes, he wore a forest green shirt with the top button undone, cream-colored khakis, and a pair of brown suede shoes.

“I look ridiculous.”

“Dude, you look fantastic. Women are going to be falling all over you tonight,” Sun responded.

“I don’t want women falling all over me, dammit!”

That made all three of the other guys pause and glance back at Jaune, their eyes widening.

“Wait wait wait. You’re saying that you don’t want to get involved with anyone? Saving yourself?” Neptune asked, winking and nudging Jaune with his elbow.

“Yeah… sort of… she probably doesn’t like me that much, though.” 

Ren’s eyes widened and he mouthed, “This is happening holy shit this is happening.”

“Who’s the lucky lady?” Sun asked, thinking it would be someone like Professor Goodwitch.

“Pyrrha.”

The other three guys in the room sat there with their mouths hanging open, before they all got together in a huddle. Sun murmured, “I’m going to tell him.”

Ren shot right back, “I’ll hurt you if you do.”

They broke the huddle and all rested their hands on Jaune’s shoulders. “Jaune, just go for it,” Neptune said, “You’re a cool guy.”

“Fine. Fine. Don’t lie to my face, though,” Jaune responded after a moment, shrugging their hands off and sighing, “Thanks. I owe you all.”

“Just… let us know how the night plays out for the stuff we miss, okay?” Sun asked, grinning wickedly.

“Sure. I don’t know what you’re going to miss, though. You’re basically lingering around me at all hours of the night no matter what,” Jaune responded in a rather exasperated manner.

When the groups finally converged, there was a very obvious tension between Pyrrha and Jaune, one only emphasized by the fact that they were both gorgeous beyond all reasoning.

Nora and Ren linked arms, practically bouncing down the hall with excitement, though Ren was the much more grounded of the two, and Neptune and Weiss held hands as they walked. As they made their way into Signal, they made a beeline straight for Sentinel Sam’s, the smell of the Barbeque pits filling the air with delicious heat. For the Feast of Fools, almost every restaurant in the city had put out a whole new menu just for the event, and Sentinel Sam’s was no exception.

As they stopped outside the main doors of the bar, they stared at the menu board, and even Weiss was impressed. “I’m not used to food like this. Mother and Father always thought it was beneath us.”

Jaune, Nora, and Neptune all stared at Weiss in a moment of shock. “You’ve never had barbeque?!” Neptune asked in shock. Weiss shook her head in a negative.

“Oh, that’s it. Come on.”

Neptune grabbed Weiss’ hand and dragged her inside, the rest of the group following suit. They sat down at a large table and placed an order for five pounds of brisket, three racks of ribs, enough beer to drown an army, and plenty of water. Nobody wanted a repeat of that morning in terms of a hangover.

They ate, they drank, they sang wildly. Even two beers in, Pyrrha’s gaze was transfixed on Jaune as he went up and did a performance of “I left my heart in Signal”, and everyone at the table noticed. No bets needed be placed, since the results were so obvious. Weiss was refreshingly unladylike during the course of the meal, wolfing down everything put in front of her with voracious glee. Sentinel Sam knew his way around a slow-cooked brisket, and it practically fell apart in the mouths of the beacon students.

After the bill was paid with generous gratuity on the part of Weiss, they meandered through the streets. There were performers in costumes dancing and singing, juggling and acting as they went along. Sun, Blake, Yang, and Nora left bills in the tip jars of the men and women in the street that caught their gaze, but otherwise paid them no mind. The rest were making a taxicab beeline for the club.

By the time they arrived, the line was fifty people deep. Ruby and Weiss glared at Yang, who only offered a shrug. “Remember,” she said, “A lady who isn’t very ladylike has her ways.” She approached the doorman, whispered a few choice words in his ear, and he nodded, the velvet rope lifted so the ten students could pass through easily.

“How did you do that?” Weiss asked, her brow furrowing in frustrated confusion.

“I didn’t wreck the doorman’s bar a while back, so he owed me a favor,” Yang responded as they descended into the club’s basement.

“You promised not to break something, so he let all of us in?” Ren asked quizzically.

“It took a lot of effort on my part. Let me just tell you that much.”

As they arrived on the dance floor, the DJ blasted a new tune, heavy electronic music, which quickly entranced Nora. She dragged Ren onto the floor, dancing alongside him, almost grinding on him at some points. The rest of the group agreed that they would need more alcohol if they were to get to that point.

Ten mugs of grog and six cocktails later, the rest of the group was sufficiently sauced and began dancing on the floor with their friends, save for Ruby and Jaune. Pyrrha was politely pushing away all that came her way, Yang was moving her way through the crowd rather expertly, and the other four… well…

Blake and Sun were dancing cheek to cheek, their bodies pressed up against one another while their hips swayed in time, while Weiss and Neptune only moved in half-time, a little more romantic than those around them. Ruby elbowed her co-captain as she sipped on her cocktail.

“Ask Pyrrha to dance,” she murmured, glancing over at her friend.

“Why?”

“Look at her. She’s pushing away every guy that comes her way, but she’s dancing like she wants something… she’s waiting for someone,” Ruby responded, having picked up on a few of Yang’s tricks over the years, “She’s waiting for you.”

Jaune glanced out at the dance floor, noting the two foot-wide circle around Pyrrha as she danced, handing his drink to Ruby as he stood up. “Hold my punch,” was all he said as he meandered out to the dance floor. Ruby finished his drink.

He pushed his way through easily, putting couples closer together than they needed to be, including Sun and Blake, then stepped into the little circle that Pyrrha had made for herself. She moved forward, her hands resting on his shoulders, and his hands instinctively moved to her hips.

They swayed in time, their heads bowed down, foreheads against one another as they moved closer and closer together until Pyrrha turned around, her back pressed against his front, his hands still resting on her waist, pulling her in close against his form.

Her head arched against his shoulder as they danced, his touch sending a thrill through her body as they danced close to one another. She wanted to whisper for him to touch her on the dance floor, but that was a risk, since there were paparazzi out on the Feast of Fools, trying to catch celebrities in the act of debauchery. Instead she just danced with him, her head tilting towards his, his head tilting towards hers.

As the music shifted to something more tribal and thumping than before, Pyrrha felt the bass of the tune rumbling in her belly, her neck arching up to Jaune’s lips.

His lips met hers halfway, his arms practically embracing around her front by this point, and they kissed… they were experiencing unspoken love, the eye of the storm in a maelstrom of lust, and they held each other there for a moment, Pyrrha’s fingers resting on his hands. She slowly pulled them away, leaning up to speak into his ear over the music, “I need another drink… could you walk me home after that?”

Jaune nodded, still befuddled by the fact that he had locked lips with someone so famous… but more importantly, he had kissed his teammate, his friend… his partner.

Maybe there was more than one way to interpret that word. Partner.

Jaune led her off the dance floor, and the each ordered another drink. He ordered a White Mistralian, she ordered a whiskey-cola.

They drank quickly, and Jaune footed the bill on those two drinks instead of passing it off to Weiss before they linked arms and meandered out of the club together. Pyrrha rested her head on Jaune’s shoulder, the two of them supporting one another as they walked along. She eventually looked up at him and asked softly, “Jaune?”

He glanced back at her, his face dusted red from both the alcohol and emotions flowing between them.

“Could you…” Pyrrha murmured, nuzzling her cheek into his shirt as they walked, slowly but surely making their way out of beacon, “sing to me again?”

Jaune started, his step faltering, almost bringing them both down before he nodded. “Sure, Pyrrha. I’ll sing for you…”

His hand moved down to hold hers, though their arms were still intertwined with one another, and Jaune began to hum the opening riffs of another of his favorite songs.

Pyrrha’s steps slowed to the point where they were marching in time with the music, and Jaune began to sing, his clear tenor cutting through the din of the Feast of Fools.

_Contained in everything I do,_  
 _There’s a love I feel for you._  
 _Proclaimed in everything I write,_  
 _You’re the light, burning brightly._

She rested her head on Jaune’s shoulder as he sang and led her though the city, her voice lowering to a gentle purr as they moved along together.

_Onward, through the night…_  
 _Onward, through the night…_

They stepped into the courtyard of Beacon as Jaune finished his song, his fingers filling the space between Pyrrha’s so perfectly that she began to wonder whether Destiny truly meant for the two of them to be together.

Jaune helped her up to her room, and paused before the door. “Well, here you are,” he said, pushing open the door to the room that she and Nora shared, “Guess I can go to bed myself, now.”

As he turned away, leaving Pyrrha at her room’s entrance, she grabbed his hand, finally speaking up after all this time.

“Jaune, wait.”

Jaune paused, her hand clinging onto his in desperation, and he glanced back over to his comrade and friend. “Jaune… just… let me say something, okay?”

He turned back to her, his free hand taking Pyrrha’s in his own just in case of emotional support. “I…” she started, then stopped, trying to put her thoughts into place, “Jaune, you are the perfect man. I don’t say that because I’ve been drinking or because I’m hopelessly in love with you, but you are the perfect man,” she said, squeezing his hands tightly, even though she refused to make eye contact with her.

“Pyrrha, I-“

She cut him off with only words, “I have been put up on a pedestal for far too long, and you were the first person to treat me like a human being in such a long time. You cared about me not as a hero or a celebrity, but as a person. And I will never be able to forget that.”

“Thank you, but-“

“Which is why I want to say that I love you, Jaune Arc. You care for me in a way that nobody else has. I love you, and I want you to love me too. I want you to hold me in your arms and kiss me and make love to me and so many other things…” she said, finally glancing up at him with the second sentence, her emerald green eyes locking onto his bright blue ones.

Jaune was stunned. He didn’t know what to say, especially in his inebriated state, so he lowered his gaze, taking a moment to put his thoughts together before he finally spoke.

“Pyrrha… I…”

Her heart sank with those two words until he continued. “Pyrrha, I love you too. You were the first person aside from Ruby to care about me here, but even she couldn’t see me as wonderfully as you do. You helped me through my trouble with Cardin. You helped me to realize that I am as good of a leader as I am. You… you are my first mate. And I am proud that you call me your captain. But more importantly…”

Pyrrha’s hands tightened in anticipation as he spoke, “I want to be your lover, Pyrrha. I want us to laugh and fight and smile as we do now, but I want to fall asleep in your arms more often than not. I want to know what your lips feel like on mine at least three times a day, and I want to be so much more to you than a captain. Would you allow me that?” He asked, his fingers clenching onto hers.

Stunned, Pyrrha nodded. “Yes, Jaune… yes… please!” She said, breaking his grip and bringing her hands up to his face, pulling him in for a rough, passionate kiss. It was sloppy, messy, drunken as can be, yet it was just so right. He held her hands in his own as she kissed him, only reacting when one of them pulled away along with her lips.

“Inside,” she said curtly, tugging on his free hand, “Now.”

Jaune stepped into the room that Nora and Pyrrha shared, closing the door behind him. The second he did, Pyrrha pulled him into another vigorous kiss, this one much more tender than their first or second, her tongue brushing against his lips, coaxing his mouth to open so their tongues could intertwine.

He obliged her, and their bodies seemed as one even with their clothes on, her pressing him up against the door and locking it even as they kissed. She broke contact, her hands resting on Jaune’s chest, saying, “Please… make love to me…”

Jaune paused as she said that, his fingers locking with hers again. “Pyrrha… are you sure?”

“Yes. More sure of this than I have ever been.”

“But you’re… well, we’ve both been drinking.”

“Jaune, I fell in love with you the moment I saw you hanging from that tree… you are my Prince Charming, even if you don’t know it yet. Please… just make love to me tonight if only so I can know that you loved me at one point…”

“Pyrrha, I can’t.”

She stopped dead, her eyes welling up with tears, her fingers clenching so tightly that her knuckles turned white and cut off circulation to his fingers. “Why?”

“Because I don’t want this to just be tonight.”

She glanced up at him, her eyes welling with emotion, her mouth working if only to push out one word. “What?”

“I want to make love to you as often as you want. I want to feel your body entwined with mine as often as you wish, to know that you love me the same way that I love you, Pyrrha,” he said, kissing her cheeks and the corners of her mouth. “I love you. I love you more than I can say. Just… let me be yours, please?”

Pyrrha bit her lip and smashed her hands entwined with his against his chest, “You… idiot…” was all she said before she kissed him, pressing her lips against his roughly in the heat of passion.

Jaune took the lead and moved her back towards her bed, the both of them laying down in a pile of giggles and soft kisses. “So, uh, what now?” Jaune asked quietly, clearly embarrassed.

“Jaune, you mean…?”

“Yep. You’re going to be my first.”

Pyrrha’s face turned a cherry red almost as bright as her hair, and Jaune took her hand in his, murmuring, “Pyrrha, I meant every word I said.”

“I know… I just… well, it’s been a while, so I don’t know how good of a teacher I may be.”

“I don’t mind if you’re not that good a teacher. I just want a few pointers in the right direction,” Jaune responds, kissing her cheek and resting his hand on her waist.

“Well, we need to start by getting undressed,” Pyrrha said, resting her finger on the first button of Jaune’s shirt, biting her lip.

He nodded and kissed her again, letting her hands undo each of his buttons, then stripping his shirt off. Jaune’s fingers gently removed her jacket, leaving her shoulders and arms bare, her breath hitching as his fingers brushed against her skin.

Pyrrha pressed her lips to Jaune’s collarbone, her fingers moving to remove his belt while he kicked off his shoes, then tugged on the edge of her skirt, “Um… how do you get this off?”

“Hold on,” Pyrrha responded, taking Jaune’s belt off and casting it to the floor, pulling back to undo the clasps on her skirt, letting the red fabric slide off, leaving her legs bare save for her sandals and her boy shorts.

Jaune bit his lip, feeling a movement beginning, and he had to shift away from Pyrrha for a moment to get his pants off, leaving him in a pair of yellow boxers that showcased a large tent.

Jaune shivered, both from nerves and from the feeling of the cool air on his skin, and bit his lip as Pyrrha sat up, pushing back on his shoulders to keep him on the bed while she straddled his waist, leaning down to kiss him tenderly.

“My captain…” she murmured, her hands resting on his chest as she pressed her hips down onto his boxers. Jaune let out a little gasp and arched into her, his eyes closing and his lips parting in pleasure.

“Sorry,” he murmured, “Sensitive.”

Pyrrha smiled and kissed him again, her hand tugging down his boxers to leave him completely exposed, his throbbing length pulsing in the air. As their lips pressed against one another, her fingers wrapped around his surprisingly thick length, and he let out a soft moan into the kiss as her hand moved up and down on his member.

She smiled into the kiss, glad that she was pleasing him, and Jaune let out a groan, his hand moving to stop hers. Pyrrha pulled back in confusion, asking, “Jaune, are you okay?”

“I just… don’t want to finish too soon,” he says, his cheeks dusted with red as he gingerly took her hand in his. “I don’t want to just finish and leave you unsatisfied.”

“Jaune,” Pyrrha said, her face creased with concern, “You said it yourself, this wouldn’t be our only time. There will be plenty of opportunity to satisfy me. Now, I just want to please you.”

Jaune nodded and Pyrrha kissed him again, stroking his member as his fingers tightened with hers, gasping, his back arching as he came.

His seed arced through the air, landing on his belly and on Pyrrha’s hands, and she marveled at how much there was. “First time in a while?”

“Yeah. Sorry,” Jaune responded, slowly going soft in Pyrrha’s grip. She stood up to get a towel, wiping them both off, her lips gently caressing the skin of his neck and shoulders.

Jaune kissed her right back pulling her so she was lying next to him, his lips on her neck. His fingers traced down the front of her corset, down to her waistline, to the band of her underwear. He glanced up at her, and Pyrrha nodded, wanting him to continue.

His fingers pushed past her waistband, down between her legs. Pyrrha arched into his fingers, her nethers parting around his touch. Jaune’s fingers slipped in and Pyrrha let out a moan, her legs squirming together to add more friction to the mix.

Pyrrha pressed her lips against Jaune’s as his fingers pushed deeper into her, caressing the folds of her nethers as they held each other close together. “More,” Pyrrha whispered into the kiss, prompting Jaune to oblige her, his fingers sliding in and out of her, his hand rubbing her labia as he did. As he fingered her, his thumb brushed up against her clit, prompting a sharp moan to escape from Pyrrha’s mouth.

“Oh my god are you okay?!” Jaune asked, withdrawing his hand from her nethers in case he was hurting her.

“I’m… fine, Jaune. Please, do that again,” she said, guiding his hand back down to her nethers to please her once again. Pyrrha’s breathing hitched as he found her clit again, eventually finding his rhythm, too. She let out quiet cries of pleasure as he teased at her, her chest heaving as she did so, back arching as Jaune worked away.

He was fascinated by her. This was a new side of her he had never seen before, that emerald gaze filled with lust and heat as he stroked her gently, then with more and more vigor. Eventually, Pyrrha let out a cry, her body arching, toes curling, her arms wrapping around Jaune’s body as she came. Jaune pulled his hand away, his fingers slick with her orgasm, and stared at the glistening fluid for a moment.

Pyrrha’s breath was heavy, and her fingers tightened against Jaune’s skin, her voice little more than a satisfied purr. She glanced up just in time to see Jaune experimentally licking his fingers clean.

“Jaune?” she asked, confused, “What are you doing?”

“I was curious,” he said, embarrassed. “I think it tastes nice, though.”

That made Pyrrha turn a deep red, covering her face with her hands, “Jaune, you don’t need to say that.”

“No, it really does. It’s kind of spicy and kind of sweet. I wouldn’t mind trying what I just did with my tongue sometime,” he said, looking over at her with a smile. Pyrrha swatted at Jaune’s chest, still clearly very flustered.

“Jaune! You’re being,” she paused, her fingers resting on his chest, “You’re being really obscene and sweet and I’m so, so glad that I fell in love with you.”

He kissed her again, snickering, feeling a little bit more confident in the whole situation now that he wasn’t the only one acting strange. “My little firecracker,” he murmured, nuzzling her softly in the afterglow of her orgasm.

Pyrrha pulled away, a look of incredulity on her face, “’My little Firecracker’?” she asked, having to cover up her mouth so she wouldn’t burst out laughing. “Is that really the best you could come up with?

“Yeah. Spur of the moment kind of thing.”

“Hmmm… is that something we’re going to do? Pet names?” 

“If you’d like,” Jaune responded, nuzzling into her neck again. “I’m not opposed to it.”

“Then I’ll call you… the shield of my heart,” she responded, playfully nibbling on his earlobe.

“Really?” Jaune said, pulling back and staring her in the face. “That one’s so much better than mine. Why do you have to make me feel so uncool?” He asked, the last statement so heavily laden with sarcasm that Pyrrha couldn’t help but smile widely, kissing him again.

When the kiss finally broke, she asked, “So. Ready for the real thing?”

Jaune nodded slowly, “But, uh… don’t we need a condom or something?” he asked, still very nervous.

Pyrrha paused, having not considered that, so caught up in the heat of the moment that she didn’t consider the idea that they needed protection, and inwardly cursed herself for not thinking ahead.

“Wait a moment,” Pyrrha said, standing up, kicking off her underwear as she went, and removing her sandals. She crouched by Nora’s nightstand and removed a small box. The box read “Dustex”, and Pyrrha withdrew a single condom from it, tossing it to Jaune.

Jaune caught it and just stared at the small package, tearing it open and pulling out the goods. “Um, Pyrrha? I don’t know how to use one of these,” he murmured, feeling a little foolish for not knowing how to protect his own junk.

She smiled and leaned in, taking the condom from his hands and rolling it down his length, leaning in to kiss him. Pyrrha pushed him back onto the bed and lay down next to him. Jaune rolled over, holding himself above her and watching her eyes as he tried to line himself up with her. After three failed attempts, Pyrrha took his member in her hands and helped him find where he was supposed to thrust in.

“Go ahead,” she said, her voice heavy with want, “Make me yours.”

Jaune nodded nervously and kissed her as he thrust in, causing Pyrrha to let out a soft moan in response to his girth. His hips began to move as if by instinct, pulling back and then pushing deep inside her, causing her to let out soft moans each time he moved. “Jaune… Jaune…” she moaned, her hands going under his arms and onto his back, nails dragging down his shoulderblades and leaving raking claw marks in their wake. Jaune instinctively pushed away from the pain at first, but found he liked it.

“Please. Do that again,” he said, resting his forehead against Pyrrha’s, their movement coming to a complete stop.

“What?”

“Your nails on my back. I like it,” he says, kissing her again, nibbling on her lower lip playfully this time.

He started moving again, and Pyrrha couldn’t help herself, she dragged her nails down Jaune’s back again, raking red in their wake until she reached his buttocks, then started again. Each time she trailed her fingers down his back, marking him as her own, he moved a little bit faster until she couldn’t breathe. Though that may have been the corset she still wore, too.

She held her body close to Jaune as she felt a heat growing inside her, a building in her core that threatened to explode outward, to overwhelm everything in its path…

And she loved it. She came, screaming his name, and Jaune knew that all was well. The sudden burst of lubrication allowed him to move faster and pound her harder, to make her whimper and moan until she despised the sounds coming out of her mouth. She muffled herself by biting down on the joint of Jaune’s neck and shoulder, finishing again shortly thereafter.

His first sloppy orgasm out of the way, Jaune focused on the lovemaking at hand. It was rough and messy and Pyrrha sounded like she was hurting a little bit, but she didn’t tell him to stop, and he didn’t want to. He continued thrusting himself deep inside her until he felt a twinging between his legs, and he knew he was going to finish again soon.

“Pyrrha, I’m almost there,” he said, his voice a bare whisper, and he felt Pyrrha’s head nod against his neck.

“Do it, my love. Please do it,” Her voice was almost a plea, and Jaune came shortly thereafter, holding her close to him as she let out a soft moan, her arms wrapped tightly around his back, their sweaty bodies clinging close together as they relaxed in the afterglow. Jaune pulled out and tugged the condom off his limp member, instinctively tying it off and tossing it in the trash. He turned around to face Pyrrha and lay down with her, his arms wrapping tightly around her body and pulling her close.

“Thank you,” he murmured, nuzzling into her neck once again, placing a gentle kiss there.

“For?” Pyrrha asked weakly, rolling over to face her lover.

“Being you. Believing in me. Letting me get this close to you.”

She smiled softly and took his hand in hers, saying, “Jaune, I knew you were going to be important to me the very moment that I met you. Seeing you hanging from that tree last semester only solidified it.”

Jaune placed a soft kiss on her lips, holding it there for a moment before saying, “I’m glad.” He held her close and let the both of them enjoy the afterglow for a moment before something started prodding Pyrrha in the leg.

She pulled back in shock, glancing down at Jaune’s erect member again, “Already?”

“Lot of aura. You said it yourself,” Jaune replied, snarkily.

“Well… I could go for another,” Pyrrha said slyly, “Though… I need a hand getting this off.” She poked at the corset she still wore and said, “Could you undo my laces, please?”

She exposed her back to Jaune and his fingers undid the knot, slowly loosening the laces when a knock came at the door.

Jaune and Pyrrha looked over to the door in shock as it started to open, and Jaune disappeared under the bed, Pyrrha under the covers. Into the room stumbled Ren and Nora.

“Hey! Are you guys doing okay?” Pyrrha asked, trying to seem as normal as possible.

“Yes! We danced and drank and I’m pretty sure that Sun boned Blake on the dance floor,” Nora said, giggling with glee as she leaned against the wall, lacking the willpower to make it to her bed.

“I’m pretty sure that’s not what happened,” Ren said, surveying the room. His gaze locked on Pyrrha and she understood that he knew. “Did Jaune make it back okay?” he asked, his eyes shimmering with deviant glee.

“Yes! He’s elsewhere right now. I told him he could crash here for the time being.”

Ren rested his hand on Nora’s shoulder and tugged at her gently. “Come on, Nora. It’s time to go to bed.”

“But my bed is right there!” She said in protest, even though she went along with her friend.

“I know,” Ren said, leaning in to whisper something to Nora as he closed the door. Just as the portal clicked shut, Pyrrha saw Nora stare at Ren in shock, “You mean they-“

Shortly thereafter, there was cheering on Nora’s part as they walked down the hall, audible through the walls, and Pyrrha felt her head rest in her hands in shame. Jaune was beside her almost immediately. “Wait… so they knew that you liked me?”

“Yes.”

“And they didn’t tell me?”

“I told them not to tell you.”

“Why?”

“Because I was afraid, Jaune.”

“You don’t have to be afraid anymore,” Jaune replied, resting his hand on Pyrrha’s shoulder, leaning over to kiss her on the cheek.

Pyrrha looked over at Jaune and returned his kiss, saying, “I’m sorry if that killed the mood.”

“Not at all,” he responded, tugging on the corset. “Now let’s get this off of you.”

Pyrrha nodded and let him remove her last bit of clothing, her breasts hanging free as she finally took the corset off and cast it aside, turning to face Jaune, covering herself up by sheer instinct. Jaune rested his hand on her arm and leaned in to press his lips to hers, tugging on the bottom lip with his teeth as he pulled away. Pyrrha pressed him down into the bed, grabbing another condom and straddling him.

She wrapped his already hard member in the Dust-riddled latex, then slowly lowered herself onto him, taking his hands and resting them on her waist as she let out a satisfied breath. “Jaune,” she moaned, lowering herself down until their hips were flush with one another. “You feel so big.”

Jaune turned a shade of crimson, leaning up to kiss her, but she pushed him back down again, saying, “Just… enjoy the view, Jaune.”

Pyrrha began to ride him, her back arching, her hands moving up to let her hair down out of its ponytail, and Jaune watched her as she moved, her pale body undulating as she lifted herself up, dropped herself down, and ground their hips together. It was almost enough to make him finish on its own.

Her hair came free, a curtain of crimson spilling about her back and shoulders, and she rested her hands on his chest, picking up the pace. She let out increasingly louder moans, and Jaune found that sound was escaping his lips as well as his hands tightened on her waist.

Pyrrha’s breasts bounced in time with her motion, but that wasn’t the most entrancing part of it all to Jaune. She didn’t take her eyes off him the entire time. She was watching him, making sure he enjoyed it, her beautiful green eyes, so perfectly clouded with affection and lust, stayed locked onto his own, and only broke away when she came again.

She let out a cry as she finished, not slowing down or pausing in her movements atop her boyfriend, and Jaune felt his own orgasm approaching rapidly.

“Pyrrha… I’m going to-“

She cut him off with a finger on the lips, murmuring, “Just a little more. Please, for me?”

Her voice was practically a whimper at this point, and she felt that now-familiar heat building in her once again, her voice tearing out in loud cries as she rode out her orgasm into what was amounting to be another one.

She looked down at Jaune and nodded, “Together,” she said, picking up the pace once more so they could both finish. Jaune reached up and caressed her cheek, his orgasm filling his entire being as he leaned up and kissed them as he came.

Pyrrha let out a loud moan into the kiss as they finished together, her hands resting on his cheeks as they climaxed, then fell back onto the bed in a moment of exhaustion.

Both breathing heavily, Pyrrha removed Jaune from her nethers and curled alongside him, nuzzling into his neck and resting a hand on his chest. “Nobody’s made me feel like that before…” she said, kissing his pulse.

“Likewise,” Jaune said, looking over at Pyrrha with a wolfish grin. “Now you’ve given me an appetite for this sort of thing.” 

Pyrrha glanced over at Jaune, almost worried, her eyes widening. “Wait. You mean…?”

“I don’t think either of us is going to get any sleep tonight,” he says, rolling over and kissing her deeply.

For a moment, Pyrrha was afraid of what she brought down upon herself.

For the rest of the night, she was glad for it.


	4. Monday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final aftermath. Sun, Neptune, and teams RWBY and JNPR convene over their final hangover for a while.

Sun woke with a head full of fuzz, pain, and a surprising lack of memories. The last thing he remembered was grinding on Blake at Also a Gun and kissing her rather passionately, and now… he was in bed.

Naked.

Why was he naked?

He glanced over to his left, now keenly aware of the way the weight shifted to another side of the mattress. He rubbed his forehead, breaking away the bangs that had crusted their lengths to his forehead from sweat, clearing his vision from the ungelled hair.

What lay in bed beside him was a beautiful sight. Truly beautiful. Lying in bed alongside him was Blake Belladonna. Naked. In bed. With him.

He couldn’t remember what happened to him for the life of him. Nevertheless, he reached up, brushing a stray bit of hair out of her face, cupping her cheek gently in his hand. Her eyes lidded open with a sense of dreariness and discontent, though those cat eyes lit up as they rested on his face, a small smile curling at the corner of her lips.

He cozied a little bit closer to her, the two naked bodies pressing against each other ever so slightly, a small peck on the lips passing between them as Sun’s tail flicked under the covers. Blake’s ears twitched in a state of pleasure, flattening against the sides of her head.

Their moment of tenderness was interrupted by a loud snore, one that was all too familiar to Blake.

That smile curled into a scowl as she sat up and yelled at her squadmate in a state of malcontent. “Yang!”

Sun rolled over to face the other side of the bed, seeing Yang’s bare back turned towards him, her golden curls twisting in a portrait of who the hell knows what. Yang rolled over, grumbling in surly sleepiness as she stared at the couple. “What.”

What then erupted was a shouting match between the two members of team RWBY, with the poor man named Sun Wukong stuck in the middle.

“You slept with us?!”

“Uh, yeah. You asked me to.”

“I was drunk!”

“We were all drunk, Blake.”

“That’s beside the point, Yang!”

“Was it good at least?”

Blake paused then, her glance shifting away as she said, “I don’t know.”

“Then we pretend this never happened,” Yang said with a shrug. How Sun would forget a supposedly ridiculously hot night of blackout drunk sex and the shouting match that ensued the next morning, he couldn’t tell.

“Um… guys?” the monkey in the middle said, pointing at the door. “We have a visitor.”

Blake and Yang turned to the portal which Sun referenced, seeing a red figure standing there. Blake’s immediate reaction was to pull up the covers to give her a modicum of decency. Yang just shrugged and said, “Eh, it’s nothing she hasn’t seen before.”

Ruby’s lips curled into a twisted smile in the doorway. “Well. You guys can pretend to forget. But I won’t.” With that final prod at the three lovers, Ruby dashed off, leaving a curl of rose petals in her wake. The audible smack of Blake’s palm on her forehead drew Sun and Yang’s attention back to Blake with a pair of disconcerted looks.

“This isn’t good,” Blake said as she rolled out of bed, not caring about the passerby that would see her in the nude, since Ruby Rose would fill the whole school with rumors that… admittedly weren’t really rumors.

Blake dressed herself. Yang followed suit. Sun was left in the middle of bed, glancing back and forth as the two ladies, seeming closer than sisters, politely requested each other to pass misplaced articles of clothing that Sun was too terrified to snag out of midair as a form of a trophy. 

It was in this moment alone that Sun Wukong realized: Women are very, very strange.

Eventually, after the two women walked out of the room (a bit gingerly, it should be noted), Sun finally worked up the courage to crawl out of bed and redress himself just behind the door so nobody would see him. Once he at least had pants on, he stepped out of the room, pulling his tattered vest over his shoulders and running his fingers through his hair. What a night.

As he stood in the hallway, getting his bearings, a familiar voice summoned him. “Hey, Sun!”

Sun turned to see Neptune and Weiss walking down the hallway together, hand in hand, each with a little smile curling on their lips. Neptune draped his free arm around Sun’s shoulders and the three walked together.

“You look like the bad end of an argument with Weiss,” Neptune said, prompting a prod in the ribs from the lady in question. He winced, and turned back to Sun, “What happened?”

Sun let out a long breath, and murmured, “Woke up with Blake.”

Weiss let out a little gasp and covered her mouth with her free hand, asking, “So you guys…?”

“Yeah. We did, apparently. That’s not all, though,” Sun said, prompting a groan from Neptune. The blue haired man knew what was coming.

“Yang was involved too.”

“Why that little...!” Weiss said, storming forward, with only Neptune’s grip on her hand keeping her in check. Her boyfriend’s restraining grip made sure that she wasn’t going to lose her mind and tear Yang a new orifice.

“Weiss, keep calm. Just let it go,” Neptune said in caution, squeezing her hand in a reassuring way. She returned the gesture and let out a sigh.

“Yeah, we can’t really get too angry,” Weiss said, “After all, she did the same thing with us.”

“Ruby didn’t catch the three of you in bed together, though,” Sun said flatly. Weiss and Neptune stopped walking, their mouths hanging open. Sun just kept walking. A few hurried steps after the moment of shock passed brought the couple up to speed with Sun.

“Wait wait wait,” Weiss said, holding up a hand to stall any other statements from either of the men. “Ruby saw you guys? And she let it be?”

“Are you kidding? Of course not. She wouldn’t miss an opportunity to mess with us like that,” Sun said sourly. “She’s going to tell everyone.”

“Well, you can only hope for the best,” Neptune said, clapping his friend on the back and shaking his head sadly. Sun Wukong may as well be a dead man at this point.

They continued to move in silence, a funeral dirge playing in the back of Sun’s mind the entire time. After a few moments, they all arrived in the dining hall, where Blake dragged Ruby away from Nora and Ren while Yang stood alongside them, stifling a laugh with little success.

Nora’s hair was a mess and she was still in her pajamas. Her legendary “Boop” shirt, Beowolf slippers, and pink pajama bottoms covered in lightning bolts seemed very fitting for her. Ren, on the other hand, was showered and fully dressed, but still wore a very heavy pair of sunglasses, indicating that he was still incredibly hungover despite his state of cleanliness and dress.

Sun, Weiss, and Neptune all approached the group of friends, brows furrowed in confusion. “What’s going on?” He asked the two members of team JNPR.

“Ruby wanted to tell us about something but Blake stopped her,” Nora said with a shrug.

“I think it has something to do with that,” Ren said, gesturing over to one of the tables, drawing everyone’s attention to the area in question. Blake’s hand fell away from its attempts to silence Ruby and everyone’s mouths hung open in shock, except for Ren. He kept his typical stone-faced gaze and awaited the reaction.

At one of the breakfast tables, Pyrrha Nikos and Jaune Arc sat across from one another, practically glowing as they held hands over the table and nudged each other’s feet underneath.

Everyone stared at the happy couple in stunned silence for a moment before Nora broke the quiet with a very loud and very excited “Oh my god!!!”

Nora dashed over to the two, examining them from every angle, prompting a dark blush from Jaune as his fingers tightened on Pyrrha’s, and her response of a comforting grip and a giggle at his adorable awkwardness.

“When did this happen why did it happen what’s going to happen I need to knooooow!” Nora said before Ren came up behind her and rested his hand on her shoulder, keeping her grounded, even though she still bounced up and down on the balls of her feet, excitedly awaiting a response.

The rest of the group moved up to stare at them expectantly as well, a slight smile curling on Yang’s lips. She clarified the questions that Nora asked with a seemingly harmless query.

“So. How did you guys sleep last night?”

Jaune, now encouraged rather than embarrassed by the public display of affection he was engaged in, glanced up at her with a sly smirk. “What sleep?”

It was now Pyrrha’s turn to slowly shift into a tomato shade as her boyfriend brushed the back of her hand with his thumb. All down the line, everyone’s faces turned to expressions of shock as, one by one, they got it.

First Yang. Then Sun, Neptune, Weiss, and Blake. Then Ruby. Ren kept his typical expression of calm, though the only sound that was going through his mind right now was excessive screaming. Nora, however, remained confused.

“Wait. What happened?”

Ren sighed and leaned over to whisper in Nora’s ear. With each word, her expression changed from confusion to shock to glee. “You mean they…?”

“Yes, Nora,” Ren said tiredly, moving to sit down next to Jaune.

“Wooooo hoooo!” Nora cheered, bouncing all around the happy couple once again, causing Jaune and Pyrrha to lower their heads and let out a collective sigh. Ren just grumbled and helped himself to Yang’s hangover helper.

As the rest sat down and started talking excitedly, some of them fawning over the newfound romance between Jaune and Pyrrha, some of them reliving the events of the past three nights, Jaune glanced up across the table from him, receiving a lime-green gaze in return.

She brushed her thumb along the side of his hand, smiling softly at him, and he leaned in, pulling her hand up to his lips to place a soft kiss on the back of it. In the midst of hangovers, ill-mannered festivities, and more beverages than they could count, Jaune was happy that the two of them at least had this.


End file.
